Morris Coffee enlisted in the Army Air Corps directly out of high school on June 24, 1941. After completing basic training at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, he was assigned to the 6th Reconnaissance Squadron at Davis-Monthan Field, Tucson, AZ. He was initially assigned as a radio operator on B-18’s. On 8 December, 1941, the 6th Recon was moved to Muroc AAB, California and immediately began anti-submarine and coastal patrols in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor. In January, the 6th Recon was attached to the 41st Bomb Group at Mather Field near Sacramento. The 6th continued flying ASW patrols from Hammer Field and Moffet Field in the San Francisco Bay area. Now flying A-29’s (militarized Lockheed Hudson), Morris was trained as an enlisted bombardier. The squadron was re-designated the 396th Bombardment Squadron (Medium) in April ’42 and gradually transitioned to B-25s.
In August 1943, as a S/Sgt with an armorer-gunner MOS, he was transferred to the 18th Replacement Wing in Salt Lake City with a recommendation to the Aviation Cadet program for bombardier training for heavy bombers. The AAF had other needs and he was sent to Tucson and assigned to a B-24 replacement crew as an armorer-gunner. This replacement crew would become the James Allen crew of the 718th Squadron. In March ’44, he and three other members of the replacement crew (Coffee, Castor, Mullins and Parella) boarded the USS Gen. W.A. Mann in Norfolk and departed for the war zone. The other 6 members of the crew would ferry an aircraft overseas later. The USS Mann landed at Casablanca and the 4 ‘early birds’ passed through Algiers, Sardinia and Sicily before arriving at San Pancrazio, Italy where on 16 March 1944 they were assigned on TDY to the 514th Squadron, 376th BG. They began flying missions with the 376th on 20 April 1944 and Morris accrued 11 mission credits with the 376th.
On 18 May 1944, Coffee, Castor, Mullins and Parella were assigned to the 718th Squadron, 449th Bomb Group where they were reunited with the other members of the Allen crew who had arrived on 13 May. Morris Coffee completed his 50th mission on the 19 July 1944 mission to Munich. On 12 September 1944 he departed Naples, Italy aboard the S.S. Athos II bound for New York and then home.
Tuscon 1941
Coffee at squadron mess hall
Coffee Muroc Ca 1942
Allen Crew in Tuscon
From Left: Donald V McEvoy, James G Allen, Nicolas Parella, Ayers W Johnson, O. Morris Coffee, James E Havard, Clarence R Castor
Coffee after 50th mission
Coffee, Johnson, Castor after 50
Morris At Home
The Squaw 98th BG Jacksonville
Morris with Ex 98th BG B-24, Jacksonville, FL, circa 1950
